Book Review :: Avalon Tower by C.N. Crawford and Alex Rivers

Avalon Tower by C.N. Crawford, Alex Rivers
Series: Fey Academy for Spies #1
on 22 March 2024
Genres: Fantasy, New Adult, Retelling, Romantasy
Pages: 522
Format: Audiobook
Goodreads

Avalon Spy Academy rules: spy on the fey, resist falling for your mentor, and try not to die in the process.

What I’m hoping for on my European vacation is to read books and drink champagne on the beach. Instead, I end up kidnapped by an arrogant, lethally sexy fey named Raphael.

It turns out, I have a magic power needed to fight an evil fey king. Next thing I know, Raphael has enrolled me in an elite spy academy. There, in the ancient and gothic halls of Avalon Tower, snobbery and brutal competitions are among the oldest traditions.

Making my job harder, the silver-eyed Raphael is my mentor. Romance is forbidden here - a distracted spy is a dead spy. So I need to push his dangerous allure out of my mind as we travel into the Fey realm. If we get captured by the fey king, we’ll die horrific deaths – and humanity won’t stand a chance.

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What is Avalon Tower by C.N. Crawford and Alex Rivers about?

Avalon Tower by C.N. Crawford and Alex Rivers is the tale of Nia, who is minding her business in France on a birthday holiday from her bookshop job in America, when she is suddenly thrown into the world of the fey, more so than just being a mortal in a world that has previously been invaded.

When she helps a group of fey make their way through the town she’s in and reach the port so they’re not picked up by guards, Nia doesn’t realise that what (and who) she discovers at the wharf is going to drastically change her life. When she lets slip that she can feel the hum of the veil that separates the mortal world from the fae realm, the silver-eyed fae she’s met at the dock insists she needs to come with him to Avalon Tower.

“You have to die when it’s your time, and no one else can do it for you. That means you need to live for yourself, too.”

With little choice due to circumstance, Nia arrives at Avalon Tower, Camelot’s elite academy for spy training. Raphael (aforementioned silver-eyed and handsome fey, whom she has actually met before, about ten years prior … not that he remembers) wants revenge on the fey king and Nia’s powers, which she discovers she has – strong and unique – can help. But in order to actually help, she has to train and learn about this world she’s been thrust into.

And to make it worse, her feelings for Rachael are growing stronger, and one of the main rules at Avalon Tower is basically no touchy. Which is proving to be difficult.

My thoughts on Avalon Tower

Before I get into my thoughts on the story, I just have to say: I listened to the dramatised adaptation, with different voices and sound effects. And it was fun. If you get the chance to listen to this version, definitely give it a go! While the sound effects are probably less awesome when it’s sped up to 1.5 speed, as I had it, it was still a cool addition to the reading/listening experience.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way … The story.

“I’m not trained. I’m not qualified. I’m asthmatic.”

I enjoyed it. There are quite a few mixed reviews on Goodreads, but overall, I did have a good time with this story, and if I can get access to the other dramatised versions on Libby, then I’ll probably keep listening.

I have to say, at the beginning of this book, we actually start with another character altogether, Alex, who we only have for one chapter. So while we’re in the same setting and only a few minutes ahead of when we moved from her to Nia, I was thrown and a bit confused for a few chapters. And we’re definitely not thrown in the deep end either – there’s a lot of scene-setting by talking about the Fey war from earlier, and why the South of France is Fey territory and what happened in order to get to this point …

And it was so tell-not-show that I had to pause the audiobook and just double-check that this was the first in the series, and also not like a … second series. But as far as I could figure out, this is the first book, and there was nothing prior to catch up on before continuing.

Once I had that sorted, Avalon Tower was a fun read.

While it’s called a modern retelling of the Arthurian legend, it wasn’t really. There are characters in the book who are descendants of those in the story of Camelot and King Arthur, etc, but all of that was hundreds of years ago. So the retelling aspect of it is really more just based on some of the magic, the characters, the idea that Arthur set up the Academy (I think that’s what they said?), and things like that. It’s not like you have King Arthur or the knights running around Avalon Tower or anything.

The characters were okay. Nia as the main character was mostly okay. At times, she did annoy me, but overall, just fine. Raphael was, again, okay. Nothing too special or to write home about. I liked her friends at the Tower, and was intrigued by one of the bad guys closer to the end and his backstory, so I guess we’ll find out more in the next book!

Was it like a lot of other books? Yes. Was it predictable? Sure was. But sometimes you need a predictable fantasy with Arthurian ties. Ya know?

Have you read Avalon Tower? What did you think?